Friday, November 30, 2012

Excerpt Tour: Over the Mountain and Back by Marie Astor

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Marie will be awarding a $25.00 Amazon gift card to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

With his father gone missing and his mother losing her grip on reality, Peter Bailey’s life is no picnic. Peter’s gray existence changes unexpectedly after he takes his new snowboard for a ride in the mountains of Colorado and is stunned to find himself in Transadonia – a hidden world that coexists alongside with the Earth.

Lara Grover never listened to her elders, so warnings like “do not talk to strangers” mean nothing to her. When a boy from an unknown world saves her from an avalanche with the aid of a snow dragon, Lara is not stunned in the least. Instead, she joins Peter on his quest to help him realize the purpose behind his arrival to Transadonia.

Together, Lara and Peter embark on an adventure filled with perils, trickery, betrayals, and unexpected alliances.

Read an excerpt chosen especially for us:

The Viglian king was one of the Chancellor’s greatest allies and friends. Viglians, however, were not the only inhabitants of the Vigli Mountains. The lower parts of the mountains were also inhabited by giants and other magical beings in the realm. For this reason, the help of the Viglian king was invaluable when it came to overseeing the matters of Transadonia’s northern borders. The Viglian king was happy to assist the Chancellor and alerted the Chancellor to any unusual events that transpired in the region, and that was the reason that King Ragnvald had come to visit the Chancellor.

From the moment King Ragnvald was ushered into the Chancellor’s study, it became obvious that the Viglian king was alarmed.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of your unexpected visit, King Ragnvald?” asked the Chancellor, glad to see his old friend, yet deeply worried by what reasons were behind Ragnvald’s urgent visit.

“As always, it is wonderful to see you, Chancellor Libra, but I am afraid I bring bad tidings. I am a man of action and few words, so I will get straight to it,” announced Ragnvald, taking a seat in a leather armchair. “A week ago the giants’ settlement was attacked by a group of raiders. We have watchmen stationed in our fortress, monitoring all locations that could be a possible point of attack. Through their binoculars, our watchmen can spot the tiniest objects miles away, but these invaders came out of nowhere, and our watchmen did not notice them until the attack was in full force. There was something unnatural about these raiders. Their movements and all their actions seemed odd and mechanical, as if they were string puppets being controlled by some evil, invisible puppeteer. The raiders were armed with strange and mysterious weapons, the like of which I have never seen before. When fired, the weapon emitted a flash of bright light and made its target vanish into thin air. Needless to say, the mysterious weapons spread panic amongst the giants, and despite their immense height and girth, the giants ran around in panic and were easily defeated by the raiders as they literally evaporated every single one of them. We wanted to help the giants fight the raiders, but before we could even begin dispatching our troops, all the giants were gone. And then the most unbelievable thing happened – the raiders pointed their guns at themselves and vanished along with the giants.”

The Chancellor’s normally calm, benevolent face was lined with solemnity and care as he listened to Ragnvald’s story.

“And that is not all,” continued Ragnvald. “In all honesty, I should have come to see you sooner, but I did not want to worry you unnecessarily and hoped that this matter would resolve itself. As you know, up in the tops of the Vigli Mountains,” Ragnvald couldn’t help patting his beard proudly as he spoke of his beloved home even in this time of distress, “the snow never melts. Yet, over the past few months, it has become unnaturally warm, and the snow is melting rapidly. Granted, there is still a substantial amount of snow, and to an outsider it may appear as though there is not anything amiss, but to us the difference is striking. At first, I dismissed this sudden change as some fluke of nature, hoping it would remedy itself, but now, coupled with the recent attack on the giants, I’m beginning to suspect that all of these events are somehow connected. And so I’ve set out to see you at once.”

About the Author:

Dear Reader,

Thank you very much for joining me for Over the Mountain and Back blog tour. The story of Over the Mountain and Back began over twenty years ago when I was fourteen years old and decided to write a novel as an anniversary gift for my parents. It was going to be a fantasy adventure about a boy named Peter and a girl named Lara set in a magical country, Transadonia. I remember writing studiously on the pages of an ornate notebook I had acquired especially for the occasion. Back then computers were not yet widely used, so I had to pay extra care to my handwriting. A year later, Over the Mountain and Back was completed, or at least I had thought so at the time. Needless to say my parents were very surprised with their anniversary gift.

Years passed; I finished high school and went on to college. Lara’s and Peter’s story faded from my mind, replaced by the hustles and bustles of everyday life. Then, one day – the day that happened to be my thirtieth birthday, my parents presented me with a gift: it was oblong in shape and wrapped in shiny paper. After I opened the wrapping, I was stunned to find the long forgotten story I had written all those years ago.

Long story short, after two years of extensive work, I rewrote and expanded Over the Mountain and Back into a novel of 95,000 words. For me it had been an exciting journey to be reunited with my old friends: Lara and Peter, Forest Witch Ramona, Chancellor Libra, Bookbrownies, and, of course, Carnelion, among the many others.

I hope that you will join Lara and Peter on their adventure in Transadonia.

If you would like to find out more about my books, please stop by website: www.MarieAstor.com.